Blue Pixel

Tuesday, December 22nd, 2009 by Reed Hoffmann

Last week I had an amazing inspirational experience. Disabled Sports USA (DSUSA.org) was running a massive event in Breckenridge, Colorado, the Ski Spectacular. Disabled people from around the world come to learn to ski, improve their skiing abilities and race. I was there to begin work on a project to document the Wounded Warriors program, which helps injured soldiers and sailors get back into outdoor activities. Over my life I've had the opportunity to see some pretty impressive things, but this one was at a whole new level.

For several years now I’ve been fortunate to be a part of Microsoft’s Icons of Imaging program (http://www.microsoft.com/proPhoto). This past summer they offered grants to members of the program to pursue photography projects. Through a friend I learned about the Wounded Warrior Disabled Sports Project, contacted DSUSA about doing photography for them, and submitted a proposal to Microsoft. Microsoft said “go,” and so I spent last week trying to keep up with some amazing individuals who aren’t about to let missing limbs, broken backs, blindness or brain injuries keep them from living the life they want.

The first part of the week was mostly about learning to ski and snowboard, and I met Jason Roberts, a Marine who lost one of his legs in Afghanistan through an IED blast when thrown from the humvee he was turret-gunner in. I caught up with him his third day on a snowboard, and had a hard time staying with him. This just four months after his injury, and only four weeks after he got his prosthetic leg. Then I photographed three guys who are training to compete in the biathlon. Justin, Anthony and Eric have been blown up, shot and dropped from helicopters, but there they were, learning nordic skiing (often called cross country) and having a great time.

And the end of the week was the NORAM race at Copper Mountain, one of several qualifiers for the 2010 Vancouver Paralympics. I’ve always been impressed with the speed and control of race skiers, but people doing it on one leg or a monoski takes that to a whole new level. For an able-bodied skier who can make it (barely) down a black slope, it was a humbling experience.

Since I’d be skiing with my gear, I decided to go light. I used one of my all-time favorite fanny packs, the Thinktank Speed Demon, and carried a Nikon D300 with 16-85 and 70-300mm lenses in it. I kept a close eye on my exposure and shot JPEGs, both to make my life simpler and because that’s what they’d need for their publications and website. Every night I downloaded to my Lenovo W700 using Photo Mechanic, and went through and selected the best images.

The truly new thing I’m adding to this project is audio. For years now, many of my friends at newspapers have been collecting audio (interviews as well as live) and creating wonderful slideshows with that combination of sound and photos. I’d been wanting to start doing this, and with the help of a great small recorder, the Olympus LS11, and a free Windows audio editing app, Audacity, took the plunge. I’ll write more about that at a later date.

Over the next year I’ll be doing more shoots for the Wounded Warrior Project, and look forward to meeting more of these amazing people.